Do you believe in miracles?  Bengals keep promise and shock 9-0 Chiefs

Al Michaels is not the play-by-play announcer in Cincinnati, but maybe he should be.  This kind of drama needs a catch phrase like the one given to the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.  The bumbling Bengals are making a habit of guaranteeing incredible victories and then somehow delivering to stun the football world.

Despite losing more games than they've won, the Bengals boldly promised in Week 11 to take out the 9-0 Chiefs, who were aiming to become the first NFL team to win all 16 games.  Cincinnati trailed in the second half, but in the end pulled out an improbable 24-19 victory in front of a record crowd of 64,923 at Paul Brown Stadium.  Holy moly!

Last season the Bengals were 0-7 when they guaranteed a win in Houston, and they pounded the Texans 38-3 in one of the biggest routs of the year.  If only Cincinnati could play like a professional football team every week.  Sunday's triumph gave the Bengals a 5-5 record, which surprisingly puts them in first place in their pathetic division.  Cincinnati hasn't been in contention this late in a season since 1990, which was the last time they had a winning record.

The three most experienced members of the Sunday Football Picks -- Blaine, QT and D.J. -- knew to believe Cincinnati's words of wisdom and didn't hesitate in choosing the egotistical underdogs.  The three least experienced members of the Picks -- Mark, Nicki and Ali -- were downright frightened to put their faith in the trash-talking Bengals, and for good reason.  But this time common sense did not prevail.

Blaine put up a 12-3 record on Sunday to show that his skill of predicting football games might extend further than the high school level.  This is in reference to Wilmington's thrilling come-from-behind victory on Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the Class 3A playoffs.  The Wildcats trailed Clifton Central 14-0 at halftime with no first downs, but Blaine said the unbeaten Cats would come to life and win without allowing any more points.  After all, they weren't 11-0 for nothing.  The Wilmington machine produced 22 points in the fourth quarter to prevail 25-14 and cause a screaming Little Bird and excited Lil Girl to practically lose their voices in the stands.  The adventurous 84-mile drive was definitely worth it.

Girlie skipped that long trek on Interstate 57 and helped mom prepare the Mayor's Ball, and then had a ball of her own by going 11-4 to trim Mark's lead to seven.  Deej would have pulled within three games of her uncle if the Falcons hadn't blown a 20-3 third quarter lead in New Orleans, and if the Redskins hadn't surrendered a game-winning touchdown to the Panthers with one minute left.

Nicki racked up her best record of the year by going 11-4, and almost made Picks history.  She was poised to snatch the spotlight from the Bengals with a perfect 15-0 mark, but four of her teams blew chances to win in the final minutes.  Oh so close!  You might remember that Nickster already is co-owner of the record for victories in a week.  She was 13-1 in Week 10 of 2001.  What about the Little Bird, you ask?  Ali's holding tight in the middle of the pack after going 9-6.